Meggyes Pite:  Hungarian Sour Cherry Pie (OMG)

Have you ever wondered how other countries make pie?  I did! I found a delicious, and easy to make cherry pie in Hungary!  It's kinda like American style pie, but more European-pastry like.  A gorgeous, and flavorful leavened pastry surrounding plump sour cherries......Can I have seconds?

Here's how to make this simple and delicious Hungarian pie!

The first thing to do is to make the short crust pastry.  To make things easier, here are the instructions for that.

Ingredients for the filling:

1-2 Twenty-four ounce (700 gm) jars of sour pitted cherries, well drained
1/2 cup (50 gm) powdered sugar
1/4 cup (30 gm) breadcrumbs
1 egg yolk wash (1 egg yolk, 1 teaspoon water, whisked together)

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (175 Celsius).

Mix the drained cherries and the powdered sugar, and set aside.

Place a sheet of parchment paper down on your board.  Roll out one disk of your prepared pastry crust on top of this paper.  You can make it as thick or thin as you like, just keep in mind that this is a leavened pastry dough, so it will rise a bit when baking.  I'd recommend 1/4 inch thickness.

Place the dough (still on the paper) into your baking pan.  Press it in.  Cut off any extra dough that hangs over the sides and use it to 'fill in' on the sides of the pan if your dough does not reach up the sides of the pan.  Next, sprinkle in some of your breadcrumbs.

Now you are ready to dump your sugared cherries into the unbaked crust! Go ahead.........

Sprinkle some more breadcrumbs over the cherries.  Don't worry, you don't have to use all of them.
Now its time for the top crust.....and some options!

You can roll out your other half of the dough tot he same thickness as the base crust.  Now's the time to get creative!  Want to cover the whole thing? Go ahead!  Evenly cut any overhanging crust, just like you would do with an American style pie.  It will come out looking like this......

After baking, that is.

Or, you can roll it out, cut long strips, and make a lattice top!  It looks like this.......

Before you bake it, there is one last step!  Brush the top of your masterpiece with your egg yolk wash.  You can also sprinkle with a little sugar, if you'd like.

Bake in the oven at 350 degrees, 50 to 60 minutes.

Let cool in the pan.  When it is cool, lift the pie out of the pan using the paper.

Cut into squares, and dust with powdered sugar, or crown with whipped cream.......

Congrats! You're about to enjoy Meggyes Pite!
(meggyesh peeteh). Hungarian Sour Cherry Pie!